So what's going on?
Well, initially, the Optimus Keyboard was a marvel - a full keyboard, with a pile of short cut keys, with each key-top being its own little OLED display, in full colour. Initially announced as possibly being wireless too. This had the potential to turn the keyboard into a full I/O device, fully customisable, and so on. You get the idea: Finally an advance for keyboard technology!
Eventually, a release date was announced. This date came and went, but is still published on their website today. So much for July 14, 2005. By the end of the year, the Optimus keyboard was announced to be available as a pre-release purchase. It didn't happen.
At the start of this year, a small message appeared about the release of the Optimus. A teaser until February, when not the Optimus keyboard, but a thing called the Optimus Mini Three was announced. The "mini" is essentially a three-button version of the OLED keyboard, which ended up disappointing a lot of people, and causing a large degree of hyperbole as to how the full keyboard would work.
The release date of the Optimus Mini Three was destined in May 2006, and then was delayed for three months (around this time, the Upravlator also appeared, announced for a Spring release)! Finally it was released, and reviews came out about the Optimus Mini Three, positive from a coolness factor, but negative from a techie point of view, in particular about the lifespan of the OLED screens being around 5000 hours (less than a year, if left on continuously).
People bought the mini-three anyway, but the real keyboard was still looming on the horizon. Nobody wanted to settle on plain old black on green LCD key-tops from United Keys (another Russian company, who has a similar story, since their keyboard has been cut down so many times that nobody cares anymore).
In their infinite wisdom, the Studio has opened their own little blog, "Life and Incredible Adventures of Optimus Keyboards". This was probably initially seen as a great way to help promote the product, but in effect has actually turned people away from the product. After finally seeing the reality of the project, we can see that the keyboard never was ready, and hasn't been ready for a long time. In fact, the only thing that seemed ready in 2005 were the beautiful images on their website (hey, they're a design company after-all).
On October 15, they stated clearly that the keyboard was already in production! Wow, it was coming, and due to be ready for pre-release in December 2006! Oddly enough, things went backwards from there. All wireless hopes were shattered, but at least we found out was going to be a 113-key keyboard still. Oh wait, no sorry, that's now 103 keys, but at least it's OLED.
In fact, this major feature was changed as well. On October 16, we found out that the keyboard will not have OLED displays, and instead come with LCD screens now. This is one day after being told the keyboard was already in production. The project sounds more like a pretty version of the 205PRO keyboard. Well, at least the one which was supposed to have LCD screens on all keys.
I hardly believe that this beast is in production when they're posting images showing disappointing image quality. Either that or they really need to hire someone to help them with marketing. This kind of thing convinces me that this thing is still just a prototype.
The problem, as I see it, appears to be purely marketing. The company seems sound, they just don’t know when to announce and when to keep quiet. They seem keen to follow the footsteps of Osborne by prematurely touting future products. If they’re not careful, a competitor who was by lurking in the wings will release their version of the product and take the market share very quickly.
So now two days ago, they've announced that pre-orders will commence on December 12. Calm down Christmas shoppers! These keyboards are probably going to arrive in spring 2006. That's northern hemisphere spring, I guess. If it gets delayed again, though, it'll probably become southern hemisphere spring!
I'm optimistic they will create something that resembles a keyboard you can customise, even if they cut it down to a keyboard supplied with a box load of pretty key-tops you can pop on and off your keys. Sarcasm aside, I think the original OLED keyboard that drew my attention so long ago won't happen for many years to come, and even then there needs to be some sort of market demand for it.
